Ashes
by MrSheepy
Summary: A Star Wars: The Clone Wars short story featuring CT-4656. Taking place during the First Battle of Geonosis, this story contains the actions and events that lead to the loss of the clones squad. This is part of a larger series currently being written, and is one of several short stories about the origins of the clones of the 56th Support Unit


Star Wars: A Dragon Breath Story

**Ashes**

* * *

The LAAT shuddered. The light turned green. The doors opened. Someone yelled, the words lost amongst the sounds of blaster fire and explosions. Then CT-4656 and his squad jumped out of the gunship and onto the sandy ground. Gusts of winds battered into 56 as he tried to hold his footing, blaster bolts whizzing past, striking the hull of the LAAT as it pulled up from the ground. 56 steadied himself, and managed to form up with the rest of his squad. Their sergeant lead them forward, all of them trotting as a nearby lieutenant directed them onward.

They formed up behind one of the Jedi, one of their new commanders, a young man who looked nervous as the green clad sergeant drew up beside him. The squad held for a moment, the battlefield calming as the final clones moved into position behind their respective Jedi. Then the Jedi nodded, and the men of Ash squad began charging across the rocky terrain, following close behind the commander.

All around the advancing armies, large spires reached towards the sky. Their natural shape were different than anything 56 had ever seen. Growing up in the sterile environment of Kamino, everything was built and formed to a strict guideline. Anything out of place was quickly dismantled or destroyed. Here, though, the spires that dominated the plains were aimless and uneven, their structure going in awkward directions. It was strange seeing these towers, so foreign. 56 could probably have studied the spires for hours, but he had to turn his attention to the battle at hand.

In the distance, beyond the amassed droid army was the droid control ships. The plan that command had come up with was to charge across the sandy plains, clearing the way for the tanks to move in and destroy the ships. So now, the clones had to smash through the enemy ranks and clear that path. A proper task for the clones, so 56 thought.

Excitement rose up in him as they raced across the dusty ground. _Finally_. Finally they were in battle. To 56 and his squad, it had seemed like training was going to last until their accelerated aging bodies were unfit for combat. But now they were in the thick of it, attacking the enemy in full force. It felt good. The ground seemed to fly beneath his feet, adrenaline pounding through his veins. The rush of the battle had hit 56 now, and he felt unstoppable. He had no doubt that they were going to win.

Blaster fire from the droids was being intercepted by the Jedi, his lightsaber a green blur against the red sky. It flicked back and forth, blocking the red bolts from hitting the clones, stopping so much fire it almost looked like the enemies were intentionally shooting _at_ the weapon. The Jedi was skilled, 56 had to admit, even though he was so young.

During training, the clones were taught that the Jedi were incredibly powerful, leading battles with their great force powers. However, 56 just didn't see how a person with a sword could be so valued in a galaxy with blasters. Of course 56 respected the Jedi, he was trained as a soldier after all and all soldiers were trained to respect their superiors, yet he just could not understand their means of combat. Until now.

42 falling to the ground, a hole burnt right through his armor, shocked 56 from his musings. A brief gasp came from the fallen clone. Shards of plastoid came flying off the shattered pieces of armor, covered in blood from the grevious wound in 42's body. One jabbed into 56's leg, punching right through his thigh plate while the other flew past his head, causing him to awkwardly twist to the side.

Off balance from dodging the stray piece of shrapnel, 56 stumbled over the dead body of his brother, being saved from tumbling to the ground by the quick reflexes of 47. Barely enough time passed for the two clones to look at each other before another bolt flew past the Jedi's blade and straight into 47's helmet, throwing the clone back. 56 hesitated, leaning over to check his fallen squadmate before a beckoning call from the sergeant drew the shocked clone away. He returned to running, catching up with the rest of his squad.

A new set of emotions rose up through 56. Adrenaline pounded through his veins, giving him the necessary speed to stay with his squad. As they ran, a barrage of missiles from distant hailfire droids began slamming into the formations around them, vaporising entire squads with a single blast. In response, the circling LAATs drew in and fired their rockets at the hailfires, destroying a good portion. But that was still not enough. Another missile exploded behind 56, picking him up and throwing him forward, up and over his squad.

56's audio receptors in his helmet had deafened when the explosive went off behind him, protecting his eardrums from the noise. The lack of sound caused 56 to momentarily pause. The battle field was surreal without the benefit of sound. Blaster fire could be seen, but the distinct retort of a shot didn't accompany it. Another explosive went off to 56's right and while he couldn't hear it, he could feel the vibrations in the ground. Close by, another clone landed, blown nearly in half. 56's mouth went dry as he stood up, being pulled along by one of his squad members, 82.

They kept running forward, firing as they went. Satisfaction rippled through 56 as he saw several droids fall to the ground as a result of his shooting. Though the feeling was quickly wiped away when another member of the squad crumpled to the ground, burn marks peppered across his armor. 56 kept running, not looking back, not even when 82's leg got blown off by a B2's rocket. 56 could hear his brother's moans of pain before another explosion finished the downed clone. A shout of warning from the Jedi sent the whole squad down, a line of blaster fire smacking into the squad behind. 56 closed his eyes briefly, shutting out the scene of dead brothers.

"Come on, soldiers! Keep pushing!" The Jedi yelled, pushing himself to his feet, lightsaber raised, charging forward again. 56 followed, grabbing 36 from the ground as well. Blasters raised, they began firing into the large clump of droids, sending many crumpling to the ground. An AT-TE was dropped off beside the squad, its large cannon quickly firing at and destroying one of the homing spider droids. The squad swiftly spread out around the walker, seeking whatever meager cover they could.

One would think that the large frame of the walker would provide a fair amount of cover, but the opposite was actually true. From the constant movement of its legs, the fact that the actual hull of the walker was several metres above the ground, and the amount of fire concentrated on the tank, choosing an AT-TE turned out to be a fairly poor choice of defense. However, it was still better than the absolute open ground that 56 and his squad had had to endure beforehand.

They gained a small amount of ground while behind the walker, having to slow their advance as they stayed behind the tanks. After a short amount of time, they transitioned into almost a march, the thudding of the AT-TE's legs providing a steady beat to stamp forward to. Large amounts of droids began to fall, the concentrated blaster bolts of the clones as well as the barrage from the walkers dealing some serious damage to the separatist's army.

Now this was what 56 had expected a battle to feel like. The advancement into the enemy, tanks both providing cover and firing at the enemy line, LAATs strafing the opposing army from above. It was comparable to all of the grand battles 56 had been flash trained with as a cadet, the two sides clashing against each other in a violent struggle to gain victory against the other. A sense of awe filled 56 as he realized how large the battle truly was. Scores of clones were spread out to the east and west of him, and ahead were countless lines of battle droids.

The battle became easier. 56 was hitting more droids now than before, the arrival of the AT-TEs providing the needed support to sway the fighting in their favour. Suddenly, the crunching sound of fallen droids being crushed clamored in the air. The forward line of the clones had reached the droids' previous position. It was only then that 56 had noticed that the droid army was actually _retreating_! Although the beginning of the battle had been harsh, the clone army was now pushing back the droids.

A wing of LAATs swooped past, strafing the enemy forces and destroying lines of droids. One unlucky gunship was hit by a Geonosian sonic gun. Flames spewing out of the hull, the gunship crashed, taking one of the droid's tanks with it. Black, thick smoke began billowing from the wreckage, covering the nearby battlefield and making it difficult to see any sort of target through it.

"You there!" the AT-TE's tank commander called from the walker. "Sergeant, take your squad through the smoke. I need you to call our shots. We can't see a kriffing thing!"

56's sergeant nodded an affirmative at the tank commander. "Form up, men!" The clones moved up in front of the walker as well as the Jedi. "We're going to push through the smoke. Take cover where you can find it. I need you to cover me while I relay the calls to the boys in the cricket there."

"Aye sir." All the clones responded and began to jog forward.

"Wait, I'll lead you men." said the Jedi, calling to the clones.

56 and the squad paused, looking back at the Jedi. Confusion was present in all the clones as they stared at him. "Uh, that's a negative sir." 56 finally said, being the clone closest to the Jedi, "this is a high risk assignment. And one not integral to the success of this mission. Loss of life is expected but only the loss of clones, sir, not Jedi."

"But… so what you're saying is… this is a _suicide_ _mission_?"

56 hesitated. "No sir. This is a normal mission… It's what we were trained for." 56 didn't understand why the Jedi didn't want to let them go by themselves. This _was_ what they were trained for, in anycase. The mission always comes first, before any clone life. That was just the way of things.

"Come on, troopers!" called the tank commander, "Get going! We need those headings!"

56 just about shrugged at the Jedi as the clones turned and ran towards the smoke screen. The Jedi had looked so lost. And… uneasy in some way. But 56 couldn't dwell upon that as the squad passed into the deep smog. 56 was sure that if they didn't have their helmets, the clones would already be choking on the smoke.

A very strange feeling passed over 56 as he realized that he could now hear the sounds of battle echoing around him but couldn't see anything, the only source of light being the vibrant blaster bolts streaking through the heavy smoke. It was nearly the opposite of what he had experienced when his audio receptors had deafened earlier on in the battle.

They broke through the blanket of smoke nearly on top of the wreckage. They dove into cover as a volley of blaster fire flew over head. The clones scrambled to cover behind the burning wreck of the tank and gunship, ignoring the fierce heat of the flames. More blaster bolts smacked into the wreck, causing the clones to huddle near the ground. 53, crouching right next to 56, was hit by a blaster bolt, and tumbled to the ground.

The sergeant motioned for 56 and the other two remaining clones towards him. They crawled over, staying ducked down. "I need you to cover me while I-" He was cut off when a mass driver round flew over their heads, brushing the top of the wreck and going straight through the flames. "Damn those tank jockeys." the sergeant muttered as he peeked over the rim of their cover. "Oh kriff!" he cursed.

56 took his own look over the wreck to see a hailfire droid, its missiles sparking and letting off flames, rolling straight towards their position. He stared for a brief second before being wrenched away by the grip of the sergeant. "Come on, 56! We gotta get away before that thing crashes!" The green clad soldier threw 56 ahead of him, forcing him on.

The four clones sprinted away from the wreckage and the approaching droid back towards the smoke. But they weren't fast enough. It collided with the wrecked LAAT, its missiles igniting. They went off, the explosive blast reaching to the clones. 56 was thrown forward again, the force of the explosion pushing him away and into the air. Intense heat surrounded him as the very edges of the explosion enveloped his armor. He flew several meters before hitting the ground hard, nearly knocking him senseless.

After a moment of laying on the ground in a daze, 56 groaned in pain. His armor was smoking, char marks spread all across his back, and his bodysuit had gone stiff from the heat. He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the grogginess. It wasn't until the smell of burnt flesh had reached his nostrils upon a stale draft of air, did 56 realise that his helmet had lost a section of his faceplate. It must have broken when he had smashed into the ground. He pushed himself to his feet, trying to keep stable, knees weak.

A fresh bout of smoke had swept across the battlefield, most likely from the explosions having gone off. It swirled about and into his helmet, burning his eyes and drawing forth tears. He looked towards the wreckage in search of his brothers and the sergeant. Not seeing them, he stumbled forward, thinking they must have been covered by the wreckage. But he almost immediately stopped as he walked over a charred scattering of ashes on the ground. He dropped to his knees, fingers gently brushing through the ash, searching. Then he found it, an identification chip, a piece of every clone armor that was made to resist the most brutal of explosions.

56 stared at the small piece of armor. He held it in his hands for a moment before letting it drop back to the ground in front of him. Just to be sure, he looked for any signs of the other two clones. He quickly found the remains, neither in better condition than the first. 56 stood there, in the middle of the battlefield, watching smoke and dust churn around on the battlefield as a thought crossed his mind.

All that was left of Ash squad was 56, and ashes.

Endex

So. This is pretty much my first ever story that I've actually finished. Honestly, I wasn't too sure if I wanted to release it yet, but I thought might as well. Like stated in the summary, this is going to be a part of a bigger series, following the clones of the 56th support unit. All clones will be my OCs unless otherwise stated.

Also, of course, any reviews or suggestions are highly appreciated, especially since this is my first story. I'll try to get back to all of them, but just know that chances are I did see them, even if you don't get an immediate response.


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